In recent years, a kind of "small piece of paper" has become popular among star chasers, among which the scarce ones can even be sold for tens of thousands of yuan, and insiders generally call it a "small card".
The so-called "small card" was originally a card printed with the artist ** that was given by the Korean entertainment company when it launched**, which is generally about 3 inches** in size and hard card texture, which is essentially a kind of *** peripheral.
As a giveaway in **, there is no official selling price for the small card. In the early days, it was mainly kept by fans and rarely circulated in the market. But with the change of the way the public listens, in recent years, the ontology with CD as the carrier has lost its usefulness, and the "giveaway" small card has become the most valuable part of it, not only by the fans, but also rising again and again.
Under the influence of fan culture, small cards have gradually become a kind of fan circle collections, like trendy blind boxes, widely circulated in second-hand trading platforms, and formed a unique "small card economy", and also gave birth to a series of related industrial chains - such as fried cards, ** small cards and so on.
On the back side of prosperity, the small card trading market is full of chaos. On the one hand, problems such as fraud, counterfeit sales, and running away around small cards emerge one after another; On the other hand, the recent small card circle is suspected of being "cold", not only is it difficult for ordinary small cards to sell, but the selling price of many expensive small cards is also "diving", this change has caused insiders to ridicule and shout: "Don't get close to small cards, it will become unfortunate."
In late October this year, the South Korean boy group seventeen released a new **, as a "carat" (seventeen fan name), Xiaoyi bought 6 copies immediately after the ** sale, expressing his support for the idol.
Although the songs in ** have been heard countless times on the Internet, at the moment of getting the physical **, Xiaoyi still plugged in the disc on the old computer at home, planning to listen to it in the "most primitive" way. However, perhaps because the old computer's optical drive has been unreadable for too long. mentioned this, Xiaoyi couldn't help but sigh, "* It's really in the past, now they are all listening to songs on the Internet, and everyone's enthusiasm for buying special products is supported by small cards." ”
What Xiaoyi said is the consensus of Hallyu fans in the Chinese audience market. Nowadays, buying ** is mainly for small cards. In order to save freight, many fans even only dismantle the small card inside and ship it back after buying ** on overseas platforms. Like Xiaoyi, there are only a few who transport the ** body back together.
In the early days, everyone bought ** out of their liking for idols (idols), and the collection of small cards was also because they couldn't see idols themselves, and they regarded small cards as a way to express their emotions. But the small card ** is getting higher and higher, and many people buy ** not because they like it, but purely for the sake of 'speculating cards' to make a profit. Nana, a veteran card circle player, told "World Online Business".
In the past two years, Xiaoka has been hyped by the fan group, and the tide has risen. With the card circle **large**, many fans who originally participated in the small card trading out of love and interest were gradually attracted to the army of card speculation.
Up to now, card speculation has become a common means of "financial investment" in the fan circle. On major social platforms, there is no shortage of arguments that will buy a small card and buy financial management and savings, and there are even bloggers who teach how to speculate cards from the perspective of economics on Weibo's special super talk "reselling queen".
In Xiaoyi's view, the most similar thing to investment is that its core principle is "sell high and buy low".
Buying ** is actually a kind of buying at a low price. Han Zhuan** is very cheap, like seventeen's**about 70 yuan a piece, buy** you will have the opportunity to draw a popular card, if you are lucky, you can draw a valuable card to return to the capital, and even make money. Many card-frying chefs (another name for the card group, hereinafter referred to as "cooks") will buy a large number of popular groups, similar to the 'blind box economy', the more investment in the early stage, the greater the probability of drawing expensive cards, and the greater the possibility of making money. Xiaoyi introduced that in addition to obtaining small cards by purchasing **, chefs will also directly purchase their favorite small cards from second-hand platforms when the card price is low, and then sell them when the card price is high, so as to earn the difference.
There is a consensus in the card circle, that is, the ** of a small card depends on its value in the hearts of the fans who buy it, but the card speculator cannot predict the psychological price of the buyer, therefore, to judge whether a small card is worth frying, the chefs have a set of "universal" standards.
Nana told "World Online Business" that this set of standards mainly involves three dimensions - scarcity, beauty and popularity of artists. Normally, if a small card has all three of the above characteristics, it will be regarded as an expensive card with hype value.
For example, BTS's popular idol Tian Zhengguo's limited edition "Flo Fruit Card" (the name given by fans to the card) can cost as much as 40,000 yuan. In Xiaoyi's view, Flo fruit cards are expensive because they have everything, "First of all, Tian Zhengguo's popularity belongs to the first echelon of the team, and there are many people who are willing to accept cards; Secondly, although the card face of FLO Guoka is not very amazing, it is good-looking overall; The most important thing is that the number is small, and it is said that it is limited to 20 sheets worldwide, so there is a market for selling even five figures. ”
The fire of small cards not only gave birth to the card speculation group, but also derived an industrial chain around the "card splitting special".
The so-called "card splitting" is the ** who knows the content of the small card after dismantling. Compared with ordinary**, the card splitting special does not contain**CD, and most of its contents are only small cards. In the past two years, the sales of "card splitting" have formed a complete industrial chain from Korean entertainment companies, to first-class sales platforms, and then to fans.
When a Korean entertainment company launches a new **, the artist station (the collective name of the celebrity's official website, fan support club, fan forum and other organizations) will cooperate with the ** sales platform at home and abroad to sell "card splitting special" to fans. In South Korea, the platforms that sell "card splitting" are mainly K4, Galaxy, and Weverse, while the Chinese market mainly includes Nanyi and Constant Entertainment. In order to stimulate sales, the platform will also launch bonus cards to add attraction to the "card splitting special".
In the whole process, Korean entertainment companies provide ** and small card resources, the sales platform is responsible for sales, the artist station is responsible for promotion, and fans are the ultimate consumers and driving force.
In the market of different countries, the small cards launched by Korean entertainment companies are also different, and in order to meet the needs of fans to buy their favorite small cards across regions, small cards** also came into being.
On Xiaohongshu, posts related to "Xiaoka** and Daiche" are going viral, and many of them are soliciting posts for young people studying in Japan and South Korea. On Weibo, there are many similar posts, and there are even special overseas ** and generation groups, forming this service private domain position.
According to Nana, ** earns the difference. For the same small card, the price of ** will be higher than its purchase price, but not much higher, but because there are many buyers, the price difference is also considerable. Different from **, "the exchange rate difference and handling fee are basically only charged on behalf of the cut, the exchange rate difference is generally calculated according to the exchange rate on the day of purchase, and the ** handling fee is determined by the agent himself." Nana told "World Online Business".
Compared with the ** industry that is strongly related to the trading of small cards, it is more common in China to carry out some "small businesses" around small cards, such as selling card sleeves, card albums and other small card related products.
In the past two years, the number of merchants with small card-related products on domestic shopping platforms has gradually increased. **, there are more and more businesses with card sets, card albums, Gu card stickers and other small card-related products as the main business objects, and many businesses that were originally mainly engaged in stationery, office supplies, and toys have also sold card sets and card albums.
At the same time, the sales of small truck-related products are also increasing. "The world's online business" searched on the keyword "small card sleeve" and found that there are not a few card sleeve links with annual sales of more than 100,000.
The small card self-printing service is also another business born out of the small card economy.
Due to the limited number of official small cards launched by entertainment companies, the choice of card faces, and the high price, some fans have a demand for self-printed small cards. On the major e-commerce platforms, there are not only merchants who are mainly engaged in self-printed small card services, but also provide customized cards that can not only be hardened and thickened, but also can choose laser, matte film, light film and other materials, and the price of 25 customized cards is only more than 10 yuan. "World Online Business" found that there are not only many links with tens of thousands of sales for self-printed small card services, but also the links with the highest sales volume show that 400,000 copies have been sold annually.
Behind the boom of the card circle, the second-hand trading market of small cards is full of chaos.
Due to the language barrier, domestic consumers still buy small cards from overseas through social platforms such as Twitter and Instagram. The platform does not intervene in the buying and selling process, so the transaction relies entirely on the integrity of both parties. This also means that consumers can only bear the losses once they encounter an unreliable trading partner.
In fact, consumers who trade on overseas platforms have been repeatedly affected by small card fraud.
In the second half of last year, a "small card fraud case" occurred in South Korea that caused a sensation in East Asia. The suspect in the case used social platforms such as Twitter to attract second-level ** to cooperate with him with the help of a large number of cheap small cards as bait. After the two parties confirm the cooperation, the second level ** will be opened in the mainland of each country**, and the purchase amount will be remitted to the suspect's account. After receiving the money, the suspect refused to deliver the goods and disappeared. It is reported that there are nearly 100 victims of this fraud case, and the amount of fraud has reached 1 billion won (about 5.28 million yuan). Among them, there are more than 30 Chinese victims alone, and the total amount of defrauded exceeds 400 million won.
In China, it is not uncommon to run orders, fraud, and sell counterfeits around small cards. On social platforms such as Xiaohongshu and Weibo, posts of fraud and counterfeit sales continue to appear, and most of the content involves "hanging people", summarizing fraud methods, and seeking comfort.
The world of online merchants found that small card fraud and counterfeit sales usually occur in the field of private transactions. Many card circle bloggers have mentioned that they usually avoid formal second-hand trading platforms and formal payment channels such as Alipay and WeChat, and require consumers to pay in the form of Weibo red envelopes, love donations, etc., so as not to be recovered after running away.
With the expansion of the card circle, in recent years, there have also been some platforms specializing in small card transactions, such as Coral Bazaar, Thousand Island Small Card, etc. It is reported that most of these platforms provide small card authenticity identification services, but whether the service is standardized and effective still needs to be verified by more card players.
It is worth noting that even on these emerging platforms that are specially designed for the second-hand trading of small cards, there are still cases of fraud and counterfeit sales. According to the Coral Market, a few days ago, a consumer on the platform was asked by the seller to receive the goods in advance after placing an order, but after the consumer confirmed the receipt, the other party refused to deliver the goods. On the Thousand Islands small card, fake dealers who use low-priced small cards as bait are also seen one after another.
Now is the cold winter of the card circle, it is easy to buy and difficult to sell, many small cards cannot be sold even if the price is reduced, and I don't expect to make money by issuing cards. Nana told "World Online Business".
Xiaoyi also felt the same way, "Since this year, Xiaoka has been a little unable to get out." ”
The scene of Korean star Xiaoka being fried seems to have cooled down suddenly. Many card players have felt the depression in the market. On social media, there is an increasing number of posts mentioning the difficulty of selling cards. On the domestic mainstream second-hand platform for small cards, many sellers have issued cards at a "fracture price", and even some of the small cards on sale by the well-known card speculation account "Reselling Queen" have also been reduced by about 20% recently, but no one cares.
In Nana's view, the key reason lies in the "oversupply" of entertainment companies and ** sales platforms.
In order to stimulate fans' desire to buy, some entertainment companies often claim that they will not make up for the first release**. **Limited means that the small card is limited, and the circulation of this batch of small cards will be relatively high. When everyone yearned for it, the entertainment company announced a reprint, and the number of original scarce small cards suddenly skyrocketed, resulting in a cliff-like depreciation of many small cards. In addition, the production cost of the small card itself is extremely low, and there is not much burden for the company to print in large quantities. Even if the purchasing power of fans can keep up, too many cards are not worth much. And in order to make special offers to increase sales, entertainment companies will let idols shoot several sets of small cards, resulting in aesthetic fatigue of fans, and slowly, fans will lose their desire to buy. ”
In addition, some chefs with a keen sense of smell roll low prices in advance, and fan groups desensitize to small cards, which are also important reasons for the "hypothermia" of the card circle. "In order not to let the small card fall in his hand, once he finds that there are fewer buyers, the chef will immediately reduce the price of the card, resulting in more and more people selling the low price, and finally selling it out. ”
With the sharp drop in card prices, many fans have also begun to reflect on whether the value of small cards matches **. When they realized that the essence of the small card was just a piece of paper, and there was a bubble in the fried card, some fans began to withdraw, resulting in a more sluggish card circle.
Nana is one of the people who quit the circle. After experiencing the ups and downs of card prices, she basically no longer participates in the trading of small cards, "This process is too consuming, and I often toss until the early hours of the morning in order to buy and sell cards." How happy the card price is, how uncomfortable it is after the card price falls. ”
In Xiaoyi's view, the cold of the card ring is related to the general environment. "In the first two years, fans frantically bought cards, and the underlying logic was that they couldn't see idols themselves, and they could only use small cards as 'meal replacements', but now that travel is open, everyone is more willing to go to the scene to meet idols than to buy small cards. ”
Two months ago, Seventeen officially announced that it would hold a concert in Macau, China early next year, and after the news was released, Xiaoyi successively sold the valuable small cards in his hand at a discount, and used the money earned to buy a concert ticket. "I'm looking forward to seeing a real person. Xiaoyi told "World Online Business" with a smile.
The ebb and flow of card circle fever is also reflected in the sales of Korean group stars and the performance of entertainment companies. "World Online Business" noticed that since the second half of this year, the number of fans of various Korean groups in China has declined.
Taking the South Korean girl group aespa as an example, in May and October this year, the group made two returns, and the two ** losses (the sales of Korean groups ** and peripherals in China are collectively referred to as "China Losses") have changed from breaking through one million and ranking first in the history of the girl group, to a sharp dive and a slash.
Previously, a fan said on social platforms: "Buying ** is to sell small cards to return blood." "Recently, the price of aespa small cards has been seriously reduced, and some fans no longer buy them. In the case of losing and losing low, SM, the brokerage company behind AESPA, has seen its market value evaporate. According to South Korea**, the timing of its market capitalization evaporation coincided with the period of the sharp decline in the middle and the loss.
Perhaps, as the saying goes, it's only when the tide goes out that you know who's swimming naked. When the cold winter of the card circle comes, the small card that has been overhyped by all parties can skim off the bubble and get closer to its own value.
References
*Xiansheng, "Global fraud exceeds 5 million yuan, and speculating on idol cards is also a wealthy business?".》
Future Business Observation, "Ice and Fire in the Star Small Card Market: The Star Journey of Stars Determines the Fate of Small Cards".